Promotion - ninelabs/city.webafternoon.com GitHub Wiki

Promoting your event is about timing, community organization, local know-how and helpful tools. Head over to Buffer or HootSuite, where you can schedule Tweets and Facebook updates to post on your behalf automatically, based on the timetable you set. It’s helpful to set these times for once in the morning, afternoon and evening, in order to gain the most attention at any given time. A timetable of 10:30, 3:30, and 7:30 are helpful examples.

Jot down your go-to list of local haunts. What are some neighborhood coffee shops, pubs, restaurants, or bakeries that attract the kinds of people who would be interested in your event?

In addition to your specific Twitter handle and event hashtag, we suggest including call-and-response questions over Twitter. One of Web Afternoon’s tag lines is, “What do you love about the web?” We put this in our info section, and did a Speaker Spotlight weekly, by asking a designated presenter to give us a reason why they loved the web. Not only did it give followers something to look forward to, but it stirred up pep among speakers and made them feel like an important voice on the social streams. Then, we started picking random followers and asked them the same question.

Reach out to potential sponsors, local hotspots, and people you think would make great attendees by way of Twitter or Facebook. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, put out a call for volunteers, or ask speakers or sponsors to email you about something you’d like them to be involved with. It’s a networking tool when it needs to be, and a sharing tool all other times.

In the process of sending updates to your social streams, be sure to do a couple of effective things. First, follow those who follow you. Second, follow your followers’ followers (that’s a tongue twister…) And third, ask your venue to advertise the event and its URL on their streams too. Combined, you’ll get in front of many eyes, which triples its reach, thanks to the interconnectedness of social media.

Also, in the weeks prior to the event, you may want to have an open door policy for talk coaching with the speakers. Whether it’s to bat around ideas, ask questions about picture size, or get help nailing down a few key points, your speakers will appreciate your commitment.